Oh good! It's my first time doing one of my long reviews and its for a game everyone hates. Yay!

83. Final Fantasy XIII (PlayStation 3)
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Final Fantasy XIII follows a group of people who were part of a “purge” which led them to being turned in to l'Cie. As l'Cie, they have two options: Find out what their 'focus' is and complete it, living eternally as a crystal, or don't complete their focus and turn in to horrible monsters.

Final Fantasy XIII has a unique take on the Final Fantasy battle system. It has the ATB bars once again, but this time there are several, they fill up quickly, and different actions use a different amount of the ATB bars. You can also allow the computer to decide for you which actions to take. You'll only control one character mainly, although later on in the game you can choose who it is. The Paradigm system is an important part of gameplay. It's a system that allows you to assign roles to your characters (almost like job classes) and you can switch between them in battle depending on your strategy. It has 6 main playable characters, 3 playable in battle at once, and 2 guest characters.


General impressions:
Final Fantasy XIII was not what I expected out of a Final Fantasy game. It was very linear, had no conventional towns to explore, very little downtime, you could only control one character at a time, the ability system sucked, and if your main character died it was game over even if everyone else was fine. I was disappointed. This wasn't what I wanted in a Final Fantasy. BUT, once I looked past the title, I realized it was a game I genuinely enjoyed. Was it my favourite? No, I mean look it didn't even make it out of the 80's and it certainly isn't without faults, but I do have fun playing this game. I love the paradigm system, some areas are gorgeous, I like some of the characters, the story is interesting to me, and I just enjoy it. It will never be my favourite game but I'd certainly play it again.

Story:
The story, I will say right now, did not live up to its potential. It was not well told. But aside from that, it actually was very interesting to me. The whole l'Cie thing kept me on my toes and wondering what I would do in that situation. Turn in to a crystal and practically die that way, or turn in to a monster? Running away from your home, being called traitors when what happened was through no fault of your own. The touching moments with Sazh, the touching moments with him and his son, learning the truth about Vanille. It was all good. If it was told properly it would be one of my favourites in the whole series. Overall I really like it.


Gameplay:
Some positive and negatives here as well. On the one hand the game is too linear and the battle system goes too fast for me to do anything but select auto battle. On the other hand, the paradigm system I absolutely adore and it added a lot of involvement. Learning what paradigms to use when was the difference between a swift victory or an utter defeat. Learning the ins and outs of each paradigm, what they were good for, when to use them, was very exciting and I loved it.


World:
The world was absolutely gorgeous. It's just a shame it wasn't more explorable. There were some beautiful locations, but my favourites would be the Sunleth Waterscape and the frozen Lake Bresha. Lake bresha especially takes my breathe away every time I see it.


Characters:
The characters I am torn on. I actually really like Sazh, Fang, and Vanille. I wish they'd kept Fang and Vanille as a couple because they make one of the better couples in the series. I didn't like Snow although I can appreciate that he was a great, loyal, and caring guy. Just a bit enthusiastic for my tastes. I hated Lightning and Hope. Hated. The chapters where I was stuck with them were the worst. Like both of you stop whining my goodness.

Favourite character: Fang q6aQ32W.jpg
Honourable mentions: Sazh, Vanille aEjB2W4.jpgzCqzfgO.jpg


I actually didn't like Fang my first time around. Now she's my favourite. Heck, I would date her if I was single and she was real. She's strong, confident, no nonsense. Sazh has some of the most touching scenes in the game and I didn't find Vanille annoying at all. Seeing her struggle was really touching to me.

Overall it will never be my favourite game or the best example of the series, but it's still a fun game, it had an interesting story, a great almost-romance, some touching moments, and some beautiful areas. Some definite potential here.


My next FF game will be much more popular, don't worry